Johannes de Cuba

Johann von Wonnecke Caub or Johannes de Cuba (1430-1503), was the first author of a printed book on natural history, being published in 1491.

Publications

Animalibus of vitam in Terris ducentium references superstitious medicinal practices. This diagram shows the extraction of a toadstone to treat someone who has been poisoned.

His first book appeared in German under the title of Gart der Gesundheit (1485) printed in the workshop of Peter Schöffer then translated into Latin under the title of Hortus sanitatis (1491) and edited by Jacob von Meydenbach. Contrary to some historians, it is probably not a translation of Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius (1484), but an original work of a much larger piece.

It was translated into French in 1500 under the title of Garden care: herbs, trees and things of iceuly coqueurent and conviennet alusage of medicine.

Hortus sanitatis is divided into several treaties:

• Herbis of the most famous deals with plants and their medical use. It has 530 chapters.^[1]

• Animalibus of vitam in Terris ducentium that addresses land animals has 164 chapters.

• Of Avibus, deals with birds (as the title suggests) and flying animals in general; as it also mentions bats and flying insects.

• Of Piscibus has 106 chapters on fish and sea monsters (including mermaid illustrations).^[2]

• Of lapidibus has 144 chapters on gemstones.

• Tracatus Urinius concerns further general botany.

Themes in his works

This work has obvious medical references, including the sections on animals and certain minerals. His illustrations are sketchy although quite lifelike. These, and the text will be repeatedly reused in other works, even if the scientific quality of the set is very poor and well below the texts of Aristotle, for example. The author uncritically reproduces many legends, such as the tree of life and coiled snakes; Animalibus of vitam in Terris ducentium, in addition to references regarding genuine fauna, replaces a variant of the mythical centaur with an onocentaure, a man with a donkey's head.^[3]

Personal life

Little is known of the life of Cuba. He was probably a doctor in Frankfurt.^[4]

References